Generic Cultists WIP

 Tonight we have a playtest for Verrotwood and I have grabed a few of my Frostgrave sprues to make 2 sets of 9 Cultists with the various loadouts as listed in the rulebook. No special conversions as these are meant to ge generic and to get used to the game, that can come later. 

 Both sets contain, from L to R:

• Generic Leader model with Heavy Blade (not needed in Verrotwood so can just double as a Heavy Blade Cultist)
• Crossbow
• Bow
• Pole (in this case a spear and a halberd)
• Heavy Blunted (A big hammer and a giant mace that I shaved the spikes off of)
• Light Blunted (a mace and a hammer)
• Heavy Blade (Identical curved blade)
• Light Blade (I gave them both 2 knives)
• Improvised (Meat chopper and a bone with a iron nail in it....you could argue the Meat chopper is a Light Blade but to me it feels more like something they grabbed from a better equipped kicthen of the Cook joining in )
  
  

Everyone has a pointy hat except the 2 Leader figures. They also have a slightly more exposed face and will get more time in the painting que. They are all from the Cultist and Cultist II box for Frostgrave, with the occasional part from other kits tossed in. I still need to do the basing, add pouches etc.

Colourwise....I just dunno. Lot's of washes to get them done, not a single conversion except a few weapons swaps already done. Either Dirty White, Dark Red or Dark Grey Black feels like a good colour....I just can't make my mind up yet. I will make another set of 9 or more with WW2 weapons, as I have plenty of spare sprues with Warlord Russian etc weapons, so I have options. I'm also looking at making 9 or so armed with muskets but I don't have any spare ones atm. I think. 

This way I'll end up with enough Cultists for Pulp, Silver Bajonet, Horror etc. 
 

In this case, they don't need or want them to be perfect. Better to have a decentish paintjob and get them to hit the table instead of languishing like some of my poor Stargrave figures are doing for years now. Then again, best laid plans and all that.... 

Old statues and a Sarcophagus

 I had based and cleaned up quite a while ago a few of the old plastic GW LotR statues and thought it a good time to paint it up. Dropped in a Sarcophagus from Frontline as well, from their 25mm Musketeer Range, set MR6 Graveyard. Tufts are from a lot of different sources.

The advantage of graves and statues is that you can use them for almost all periods, from old to new and future even. Right, enough for today, on with the next.

Another rock on the floor

 Did the basing, finished most of the Milliput work on the ruin. Needs a bit more work on the inside. Picked up some plastic boardgames piece ( I think it is anyway) that suits the fantasy setting well. That or it is Xenos filth deserving only the heavy flamer.

 

When I have some more free time I'll finish the Milliput and run them both through the primer stage.

Another brick in the wall.

 Well, more than one.

It's Tuesday, 32 outside so I guessed Milliput would dry pretty damn quick today. Using the foam I glued in earlier as a base I layered in Brown Milliput and went to town with some tools. Nothing too neat, I don't have time or energy for that and it's just a scenic piece. Also started filling in the gaps on the base with some detailing in places. It's now drying and I'll get back to it in the weekend.
I'm having fun.

Back in the saddle

 Right, the GI's are on track and can wait for a few days till I clean all the bases.

Grabbed some scenery for 28mm Stalker I had been working on before the move. I finally found a proper star punch at the Goodwill a few weeks back so I put that to good use (and found out my big round punch is on it's last legs so need to keep a lookout for those). Used that for the monument (basically a sports throphy with the tacky symbol (literally a sticker) and the much too big base removed). Will be painted concrete and weather paint as just another of the gazillion ones you see around Russia. LOS blocker and all that.

Also finished the sanding work on the 15mm Gazebo dome. And then decideed to fill in the MDF connectors between the panel sides as well but that's for another day.

 

 

 I picked up a resin ruin for a fiver, what turned out to be a Conflix model. Could have fooled me, the cast is so crappy I took it for a fishtank model. It's really weird on the inside, where the mould was, very haphazard and rough sharp casting remains. I took a bit of time and plugged in foam inserts in spots I want to fill up, and added hot glue to fix that all in place so I have a good base to start Milliput work sealing up the openings I don't need and add a bit of a platform on the inside where I do need it. Not that any 28mm model will fit inside, but picked this purely up as decorative scenery, and with 2 or maybe 3 exit/infil points for monsters or what not. Cut and sanded a base for it and glued it down with hotglue cause did I mention the thing is warped too? Hotglue is the great equalizer and a lot cheaper than epoxy for this. Gaps on the base will be filled in with Milliput as well. No rush on this one, will come in handy for Frostgrave, Silver Bajonet, the Last War, my Quar, Mordheim. Eventually.

I picked up several of of the SP Guard Houses. Simple kits, cheap, with great conversion potential.

 

When my built one came out of storage I noticed the roof was badly warped. I looked at ways to fix it but in the end decided not to bother and just make a new roof. I've got the skills and the tools, and in an hour I punched out this. Scrap foam, ribbed card and a strip of plain cardboard forma  cereal box. Didn't go all out for the panels, I can just paint them that way. Added a star was well, but won't paint it too overly Russian. Red star and some baby blue details. A few scrap Russian newspapers around, and when I finally get furniture for it that can get the same treatment. Roof can be reversed to change the look a bit, always nice to increase usability. I found some proper thick transparancies so might even glass the windows.

And cause I could, I grabbed some 15mm railing that I cut of from the 15mm factory add ons and changed that into a steel grate door with kick panels. Just need to find my bag with fine metal chain that hasn't popped up after the move (yet) to put a chain lock on that door. 

The side is open and will stay that way, I have a seperate fence planned on that side.


Today was a good day :)

Sacraficial altar or entry guards to Alien Bob's Burgers?

 Slowly getting into this 3D printing thing (by having others do the printing, fair is fair) and I liked the look of these "Alien Shrine Savage Planet" on Cults3D, so had 2 printed, based them up.....and then took quite a bit of time actually doing anything to them. Nothing spectacular, but they work as sacraficial altars for DnD, Frostgrave etc, or Alien momuments for Stargrave or Rogue Trader, or maybe just doorguards for Alien Bob's Burgers and Fries, who knows. Also: scale agnostic! As seen here with 20mm and 28mm. If I still did 15mm they would work for that as well. Here is the link to the files online: Alien Shrine

Even....more....bricks..... WIP

So, with the 4 walls ready for paint, I of course started painting.

Just kidding, you know me by now.....

After dropping off the kids at school, donned my superman outfit blue coverall, maks and ear protection and sanded every pre cut of MDF I had lying around plus all of the WIP paddy fields, just to make sure that messy task was over. Cleaned it, took the stuff inside and, checked if the 4 walls had set completely and though.....might as well make a ruined viaduct, right?

Yeah, reasons.

Bit more of a plan in these for a change).

Short ruined colums first (DONE)
Build everything up to arch level.
Do the insides of the arches first so I don't lose the will to live.
Work everything up to the top.
Do the roadway/canal on top.
Celebrate with cake.

Well, it is A plan....never said it was a good one?

Another 3 gazillion bricks in the Wall - WIP

So, 1 wall became 2...and became 3.....and baecame 4. Thank you brain. Finally have focus again and I'm doing something not even on my wants list.....

It's really not that hard to make, just mindnumbingly boring and takes forever, so right up my alley ey.....

I could not decide between Desert or European....so I'm going with sandstone  on a light brown base like almost all of my figures, with some green and mostly dead tufts in places. As it is scale friendly it will work for Afrika,Afghanistan and everything in between, even the Balkans.

Another brick in the wall - WIP

We had a chat and build night today at my place, and I had cut some foam to make some smal bits for FotR....

....and then this happend after a couple of hours of glueing bricks on a scrap of MDF already sanded. (yes, I'm still slow as a glacier, my hands are not really cutting it atm)

Guess I'm making a LOS blocker for Mordheim, Frostgrave, Dustgrave, something? I dunno, just winging it.

50 cent challenge!

After taking the girls to town, we rummaged a bit in the toyssection etc and I left with some broken vehicles and a small shack, and the girls with a puzzle and a colouring book (small kids get free stuff at both 2nd hand stores, which is a nice toutch provided the girls don't dig up the gazillionth pluche toy). As I sat down tonight I gazed at the price sticker of the small house and thought to myself.....it's time for the 50 cent challenge! So....

Just one rule -

 Find something in the range of free to 1 euro (adjust to your local currency and use a round number) and change it into something suitable for the tabletop....be it a objective, scenic or other gaming piece. It has to be the main part of the build, you can add bits and greeblies no problem, but you must still be able to recognise it. And that is it.

Go and have fun you guys :) Just post a before and after pic as well :)

I've started 2 tonight:

 Something from a kid's playset, looking at the sides it seems you can add other play pieces to them. I have not seen these for quite some time tbh. From a rough guesstimate I though this would work well for 20mm as a shack.

 I removed the roof as it was suspended quite a bit above the container. I also removed the base as I have no need for it. To my surprise I found out it actually has room for a small speaker and a on/off push button, but these have never been installed.

 My first though was to blanket off the openings with plasticcard and add filler to smooth everything out, but decided against it and went for the old tarp method..

The "tarp" is nothing more then tissue paper and translucent green Mod Podge grabbed from the 50% off discount bin, that I picked up to use for pondscum. I dumped a wheel on it from my spares bin, a bit of sprue resembling a tin can, and several rocks. I also added a base and a bit of sand.

Not entirely happy with 2 levitating spades, I'll cover those up with....something. But it's a start.

2nd item I started is the wreck of a US longnose truck. It really got the snot punched out of it, and they charged me 1 euro for it. No amount of haggling could persuade the woman behind the counter that this was most certainly not a collectible, and as the money the make is used to help the local homeless I didn't press the issue (too) much. But yeah, I overpaid.

Need to add junk around it, and sand, and a quick weathering job and it is ready for the Gaslands table or some form or other Post Apoc game or just for the junkyard.

 Picked these up last week, a big Guzzolene trailer for the spares bin. It is the same scale as the next truck. Sadly no decals but crappy stickers, so they will have to go, but I migth have some Shell decals in the spares bin.

Truck plus trailer  combo commonly seen carrying scrap or dirt. I'll enjoy weathering this one.

These 2 plus whatever the heck the next thing is set me back 75 cents in total at the other 2nd hand shop.

In my hand, it felt a bit like looking at Isengard. When suitably based with something to prevent it toppling, and a round object on top (painted with AK Interactive Oil Stains and some coats of gloss) it will do fine for generic Fantasy scenery, like a magical focal point for Frostgrave. Fig is a 20mm one btw. I'm now wondering where all my metal bases are, I want to get this thing prepped asap :D